1) Historical materialism demonstrates that Protracted People’s War is universally applicable as a method for the achievement of State power. Some forces that are not Maoist have actually copied this successfully, the limitations being inherent to the eclecticism this implies in relation to how does the the politico-military struggle evolve. Yet Maoism is synonymous with the application of the universality of the Protracted People’s War to a given condition. As the article M-L-M Mayhem! we linked to above explains, this doesn’t mean that one prosecutes military operations primarily, but that all revolutionary agitation culminates with the military confrontation between revolutionary and reactionary forces. When the military conflict is not the primary political situation, even if we understand Protracted People’s War as universal, the engagement in it constitutes adventurism. However, when the political situation is such that the military conflict is the primary form of politics, there is no evading the military perspective. Such is the case in Syria. 2) Since Protracted People’s War is universal, this means it applies to Syria. So the primary question for Maoists when discussing Syria is how will Protracted People’s War will be prosecuted and when to elevate the struggle to a military one. There are no organized Maoist forces in Syria, which posses the question in an even more complex form: in a situation in which the military struggle has taken primacy, were do the communists should stand? The revisionists tell us that the defense of the Assad regime is primary, but the Syrian masses tell us this regime is bankrupt. So what to do? Kurdistan is the pivot. The Kurds have been able to reach a strategic stalemate with the regime, and have throw out the FSA from Kurdistan. No small feat. This impressive achievement of national liberation, however, has been done responsibly – there has been no attempt to formally break Syria apart, only to delimit zones of autonomous control. No doubt this follows a strategy of careful national construction on the part of the Kurds, who recognize both the need for an eventual Kurdistan, and the complexities needed to create it. In essence, they are pursuing a strategy similar to Protracted People’s War, without proletarian control or communist ideological supremacy. This however creates the strategic confluence and possibility of unity between Maoist forces and the Kurdish struggle. 3) The Syrian communists who want to struggle against imperialism should realized the Assad regime is deeply a comprador regime, that it does not have the Syrian national interest in mind, and that it is not in an equal relationship with Russia imperialism, but rather it has a neo-colonial relationship with it, as well as with the junior imperialism of Iran. Syria is not so much a puppet State as it is a semi-colony/neo-colony – it doesn’t simply do the bidding of the Russians, it is in fact given great latitude in this respect, but rather serves as an outpost and ally of Russian imperialism and of Iranian junior imperialism, advancing the interests of both even when it risks the Syrian national interests. As such, it is right to rebel against Assad, and it is better to build revolution against him. To defend him is to defend – as the revisionists once did – the Kuomintang over the Chinese Communist forces. 4) However, we must recognize that the FSA is dominated by a coalition of pro-US imperialism, pro-Saudi junior imperialism, Jihadists and wannabe compradores. Since they are the main military force against Assad in the ground, this poses the clear contradiction – there is no Syria-wide military opposition to both NATO and Assad, and it would be suicidal to attempt to build it in the present period. 5) It is thus time for the long march to Kurdistan – to break with the Assad regime, to develop and link up forces with the Kurdish movement, to oppose the FSA Saudo-American national liquidators, to rebuild a popular and mass base for a New Democratic Syria. The Kurds have in effect created a sanctuary and base area free from both imperialist/jihadist and Assad interference. They also have a long history of proletarian internationalism on the basis of the respect for Kurdish customs and autonomy. It provides the perfect, concrete and material, conditions to the development of a third way capable of taking the strategic offensive, even if the Kurds themselves are not willing or capable of engaging in it. 6) For those of us outside of Syria, it is critical we oppose imperialism, but it is also critical we seek out and connected with those in Syria that agree with us, to provide them support, to also link up and advocate for Protracted People’s War in alliance with the Kurdish national forces in Syria. We should seek to develop a united front with all forces willing to oppose imperialism in concrete terms within the imperialist countries, withouts regards to our differences on how the struggle on the ground develop. Only security considerations – for example, groups known to do pigwork for Syrian intelligence or for Western intelligence – should be discarded from such a united front. Our primary struggle thus is to agitate against imperialist intervention and meddling in Syria, including opposition to the FSA and its apologists and their denunciation as tools of US/Saudi imperialism. At the same time, outside of this united front, we must engage in clear criticism of the Assad regime, and a defense of the original demands for democracy, national liberation and self-determination, and real freedom from imperialism (not just US/Saudi imperialism) that the Syrian masses bought forth before NATO intervened. We must fight also for a correct reckoning with the facts on the ground, to combat the lies and distortions put out by both sides. This is the Maoist position – devoid of illusions, deeply materialist, in opposition to revisionism and other trends which are seeking to sacrifice proletarian independence in the name of an empty anti-imperialism. Revolution is neither a picnic nor a pick up game, you do not simply pick a team. You struggle to be a partisan and build a team composed of the advanced layers of the proletariat. Assad is not in the proletarian camp. The Kurds are. That is the pivot. The sooner we realize this, the sooner our confusion will be over, the clearer the line of march becomes, and we can begin to advance our own tasks of building revolution were we live. By tapping into the possibilities opened by the Kurds, the International Communist Movement has an opportunity to gain valuable experience of a re-invigorated Maoist practice in a region than sorely needs it. By aligning ourselves with revisionism, we destroy the possibility of building trust in the masses, of engaging in a mass line perspective, and of ultimately struggle against revisionism for hegemony in the proletarian struggle. These notes, while relatively extensive, are nowhere near as exhaustive as they should be, and it is my hope they generate a needed debate on the topic. The line struggle, however, should be clear: capitulation in front of revisionism (and cousins) or the fight for Maoism, for the universality of Protracted People’s War. Those are the stakes. massalijn.nl/new/universality-of-ppw-neither-assad-nor-nato/
Posted on: Sun, 05 Oct 2014 19:57:34 +0000
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